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Neverwinter Nights is Gold
Urthpaw writes "Neverwinter Nights, the D&D based RPG from BioWare (Makers of Baldur's Gate among other titles), for Windows, MacOS and Linux has Gone gold. The game allows players to make their own "modules", or adventures, and DM them for up to 64 friends. Server-linking features allow the assembly of distributed MMORPGs."
That's a lot of friends for this type of crowd!
Its good to see that they are marketing this rpg to populuar kids as well.
Just when we got over our MUDing addiction EverCrack came along. Then now this. How do they ever expect geeks to get a life and go outside?
I am 31337 or something.
Damnit!
Now I have to use my last week of vacation for the year.
"Going Gold" means the Master CD's (which are, or at least used to be, gold in color) have been shipped to the publisher, who will begin to mass-produce them, along with the manuals, and stuff everything in boxes.
It has nothing to do with any particular retail outlet, other than the outlets can probably expect shipments to start arriving in 7-10 business days.
This space for rent. Call 1-800-STEAK4U
You can be sure I'll be spending my previous school hours playing this game. WOOPEE! I've been waiting sooo long :)
The term "Gone gold" does not imply shipping, only that the master copy (the "gold copy") of the CD(s) has been pressed, and is ready to be sent to manufacturing for replication (referred to as "RTM", or "Release to Manufacturing"). "Ship" means that it has actually left manufacturing and is on its ways to the stores. There is a definite time lag between "Gone gold" and "Shipped", usually at least a week, often more like a month. If somebody tells you XXX just "went gold", and it's already in the stores, then it "went gold" probably 2+ weeks ago, and "shipped" a few days ago.
Unfortunately, too many people misuse the phrase "Gone gold", so it's now synonymous with "Shipped". It should mean something different, but such is the way of the ever-evolving English language.
The game allows players to make their "own" modules, or adventures, and DM them for up to 64 friends.
Who owns what module? Bioware? Or the consumers? Inquiring minds want to know!
Why would anyone want DM'd games online? You loose pretty much every benefit of P&P rpgs; loose pretty much every benefit of single player rpgs; for what? the ability to play across distances, a computerized dice roller, and some pretty graphics?
I think BioWare will make a fun game, with alot of features, but I don't think (and history hasn't proven) that the id "make an engine, let the community write the game" approach works in rpgs...
From the press release:
"The PC version of Neverwinter Nights will ship to retailers before the end of June. Linux gamers can anticipate the online release of the Neverwinter Nights server at launch and the client program shortly afterward. Linux gamers will still need the Windows version of the game to register at the Neverwinter Nights community site (http://neverwinternights.com) and to import essential game resources into their Linux server and game."
"We were half way to Rivendell when the drugs began to take hold."
-- Hunter S. Tolkien
There is still no information on whether or not NWN will be available for Mac OS X or just Mac OS 8/9, or both, or what. In fact, they don't even mention the platform in the press release.
You think they'd know by now, wouldn't you? I get the feeling that it just isn't ready yet.
This now concludes our broadcast day.
Morrowind of course has over 500 hours of gameplay. 'An editor and a few quests'... pfft.
Actually, not quite. While they're releasing the MacOS and Win32 versions to the shelf.
Linux will see the online release of the Neverwinter Nights server at launch and the client shortly afterwards. However, Linux gamers will still need the Windows version of the game to register at the Neverwinter Nights community site and to import game resources into their Linux server and game. (The editor is currently not planned for Linux)
After being rather disappointed with the last few RPGs to come my way (Morrowind being the latest) I'm hoping this lives up to the good Bioware name. Fan sites are already working on plans to mod all the old D&D modules we knew and loved back in the day....Ravenloft, Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, the Drow and Giants series', Temple of Elemental Evil....all the good old stuff I played in high school. It will be worth it for nostalgia's sake alone.
Another plus to this game is that I'll be able to game with all my old friends back home again, just us, not as part of an MMORPG, and in modules of our own design. I'm really looking forward to it.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
Morrowind has 500 hours of "pick up item A take to location B". Sorry, this got old after the first day. The world in Morrowind, while nice to look at, is devoid of any real content. They should have just updated the graphics for Dagger Fall.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
The PC version of Neverwinter Nights will ship to retailers before the end of June. Linux gamers can anticipate the online release of the Neverwinter Nights server at launch and the client program shortly afterward. Linux gamers will still need the Windows version of the game to register at the Neverwinter Nights community site (http://neverwinternights.com) and to import essential game resources into their Linux server and game.
This is a surprise. The Linux version was supposed to ship IN THE BOX.
They went gold right as their public beta testers started to receive their cd's..
I'm wondering if they're planning on patching day of release to fix multiplayer problems..
I got into role playing in middle school, and let me tell you:
YOUR MOM WAS RIGHT!
It was such a nautral progression to go from fighting dragons with my ranger to sacrificing virgins to the great dark lord. I don't play as much anymore, but every so often when I get bored with smoking crack and drinking the blood of the unworthy, I'll get some people together for a game. It's a great game and I highly recommend giving it a try sometime.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
What I'd like to know is why (once again) Linux is not being represented in the retail box. All the way up to release, the story I heard was "versions of the product for Linux, Macintosh, and Windows were going to be in the same retail box." That was one of the biggest reasons for my money going into this game (other than being a fan of Bioware's previous works like the Baldur's Gate series, the revolutionary approach to this game in particular, and of CRPG in general). Sure I'll still buy the game, but I dislike in the extreme having to wait "a short time" (which could mean a month) to play it on my OS of choice.
What happened, Bioware?
-- May the Source be with you...
- The endless character recaps by everyone there before, during, and after the game e.g. "Baldac has a 16 charisma and an 18 wisdom with a +2 mace of boring"
:
;)
- The stench of geek BO, combined with smelly feet in the summer...ahhh...nothing like a rank basement to really bring out the geek aroma.
- The challenge of trying to
a) figure out WHAT kind of food to get
b) trying to find someone there who has money to PAY for the pizza (usually goes to the guy making $9/hour (e.g. "the rich guy") instead of minimum wage part time like everyone else.
- Trying to herd everyone into the room so that the game can start/continue
oh yes, I'll miss that.
"For a successful technology, honesty must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled." -Feynman
Actually I found that ID was actually one of the few BG clones I did not have to prepare for battles or "save-cheat". I did restart early though, and play through it with only 4 characters, as the game seemed to reward fewer, more powerful characters. I could not beat the game as it suffered from "Impossible end battle syndrome"
BG2 for example had multiple neigh-impossible battles (except for the last one of course, which was cake compared to all the other games in the line) which imo could only be completed by following certain tactics (that were less than honorable) and knowing things you shouldn't know *AND* getting lucky one of the times through the fight.
I'm actually looking forward to Icewind Dale 2, which is supposed to fix the 800x600, path finding, as well as adding a bunch of new features. Neverwinter imo is just an overhyped engine without much content or realism attached to it. Hopefully I'm wrong...
My BestBuy Pre-Order box says June 20th for the release date. Does anyone know how much documentation it's going to come with? I've looked at the beta and the scripting language is fairly complex.
And make sure you registar your LINUX copies so that BIOWARE knows that there are Linux gamers using this! The default assumption is that your purchase is for a Win32 platform.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
from gamespot UK:
This is a game that manages to involve you on every level,
and even in the world of role-playing games,
it has a rare amount of depth.
If all the quests were the same, it hardly has depth. There's the main storyline, then 13 houses/guilds you can join with quests, and many others. You're wrong, of course.
I believe you can purchase it as of 6/18.
Another few months when the patch comes out and we can all play the most anticipated video game in AD&D history. This is one that I have been looking forward to for years!
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
We have to move in three weeks, and I know my husband is gonna be just WORTHLESS he actually gets a copy of this...I wonder how much it would cost to get them to delay the in-store availability to July 7--whatever the cost, it would be worth it so that I wouldn't have to pack and move our apartment alone...
Thanks, BioWare, for making my life miserable...
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
In fact, it might not even _have_ a registration card! Instead, buy it from a known Linux vendor, like Tux Games so that other game companies will get the message that Linux really is a platform worth developing for!
For the record, IWD didn't suck. In fact, I am in the middle of a multiplayer campaign with two friends, and we're all having a blast!
IWD must be the best of the IE games to play over the net. Not much talking to NPCs and it is nice and linear so no arguing over which way to go :-)
A bit hard to fit it into everyones schedule, but that's life.
If NWN bombs out (I hated DS -- after having great expectations. Damn you Chris Taylor. Loved TA, but what were you thinking with DS?!) I'm pretty sure that IWD2 will deliver more of the same we all (except the OP) love.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Does going gold have meaning anymore? Don't we live in a world where we *expect* to have to wait a month *after* we buy something for it to work, and the chief effect the CD seems to have is slightly lowering the users' initial startup time and the publisher's bandwidth costs? Why still call it "going gold"? Why not say "started pressing the patching/update client"?
Sorry, I just find this depressing.
is competition good, or is duplication of effort bad?
Be sure to check out A Land Far Away if you are a hard core role player (in the "acting" sense and not in the "hack and slash" sense). It's a fairly massive online community of about 700 people whose characters will all live within an international cluster of servers.
/. It looks like it ought to be a good time.
I got my character in a couple of months ago when I read someone else's post about ALFA here on
It'd be nice if we could start some sort of mass movement to not put up Linux servers until the Linux client is out. The lack of tools is bad enough - if they want servers, they need to deliver clients.
In fact, if it did that for every game, we might see more Linux ports done in-house. Just a thought.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Gaming can take over your life, or it can be an enriching escape from worthwhile, but stressful activities. My Summer is gonna be extra stressful:
10 hrs/day Work (I'm a researcher / grad student)
ouch! Once I've prioritized that, I can use my time management skills to arrange it so that playing this Summer's hot new games doesn't become a substitute for crack.
4 hrs/day Heroes IV: Tournament of Honor
4 hrs/day Neverwinter Nights
4 hrs/day Master of Orion III
2 hrs/day Smoking Crack
all 24 hours a day are filled with stimulating activities, without displacing my drug habit. Also, by deleting wasteful food from my schedule, I'll be able to lose that weight without becoming physically active.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
What does "gone gold" mean anyway? I thought it ment that the game hit store shelves.
Enlighten me.
People discover the meaning of life between getting piss drunk and the following hangover.
WARNING- This is going to sound like an '... and we liked it that way' rant, but here goes-
I was playing D&D back when we were poring over Dragon Magazine #4 to try and glean anything at all about the maddening frustrating lack of rules. So we created a lot of stuff on our own, some of which got duplicated by TSR when later editions came out. Kind of hacking an RPG in a time when no one knew what an RPG 'should' be.
So I may be an old fuddy duddy, but you just can't be as creative when the code (by it's very nature) limits the actions of the characters and the creativity of the DM.
And so help me I have NEVER gotten into the MUDs and their graphical descendants, because there is no substitute for face-to-face gaming.
I'll pass on this D&D gimmick just like everything else, and let everyone else allow their imaginations to be dictated to by the game company.
Come to think of it I actually remember porches and playing outside without benefit of a video game. Lord I AM old.
________________________________________ History Must Not Fall Into The Wrong Hands ___________________________________
I disagree, I've hade many weeks of fun with Morrowind. The quests are not solely FedEx.
Were I a game-designer I would try for a game which could generate quest-trees from a grammar and a database (the game would use a decent database and I would equip the game-engine with a suitable query-language, such as a limited subset of SQL) of the world objects. There would be actions, locations and conditionals, and then... but I digress.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Here are the two different scenarios, keep in mind that in our current apartment we do not have broadband and we will have it in the house we are moving into...and stealing his computers wouldn't work, he's got at least two that this game would probably run on and could borrow one if he really wanted to...
Scenario 1 (the way I would like things to be):
Hubby pitches in on packing, eagerly anticipating us being in our new house and having the basement set up to do his gaming (the basement is wired for surround sound). Hubby gets everything moved, and quickly unpacks everything before July 7 so he can game at our house, with our high-speed connection, without having the responsibility of unpacking still on his shoulders because it is ALL DONE.
Scenario 2 (what is really gonna happen):
Hubby knows that game is coming out, and starts packing, but tells himself that he won't get sucked into playing the game. Game hits the shelves a few days before the last weekend we have before moving day (July 3). Hubby goes down to his friend's house who has mondo bandwidth 'just to check out the graphics' on the Friday night before moving day, comes home at 7 am Saturday (no exaggeration, this happened most recently with Jedi Knight 2, why would this game be different?). Hubby sleeps all day and gets started packing around 4 pm, realizes he left something essential at his friend's house, drives down there, reappears at 7 am Sunday, sleeps all day. Moving day comes, movers end up finishing up the packing, causing no end of havoc when trying to find things. Hubby does not spend a weekend at home for a month, because it is easier to go to friend's house to play NwN than to unpack and set up the basement.
P.S. this is NOT meant to be me complaining about my husband's gaming on weekends, it doesn't bother me when he stays out playing, it's just kinda like someone scheduling a funeral during the Super Bowl--damned inconvenient timing and a football party is a lot more fun than a wake...
(I'm really hoping the BioWare people will see this and delay shipping just for me...)
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
Did they ever get back to us on the whole EULA thing? Given that it's been a few weeks since they were going to tell us what the master plan was, I kind of feel like they're trying to put a lid on the whole deal and hoping that it'll blow over by the time the product hits the shelves. I really hope this isn't the case, as for a fleeting moment there I felt like we were being taken seriously.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Many multiplayer games I've seen do not require a direct 1-1 relationship between copies purchased and players playing. For example, some allow you to run a game of 4 players, off 1 legit CD, or something like 4 players for the 1st CD, and then 2 for every other legit CD joining the game...this way you could use your brand spanking new expensive game to actually *play* with other people who might not have it.
I am wondering what the NWN policy is (I checked the FAQ and couldn't find anything about it). If I am able to play with 1 or 2 other people (who I know for a fact will definitely NOT buy this otherwise), then I'll be sure to get NWN...otherwise, there is no point in me buying it at all (and Bioware loses a sale).
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Wow! You mean I'm the only person who cranks up his resolution AND his font size?
True, the characters are about as small as they can get, even in 640x480. But what I'm looking for is a resolution where the infobox text, for instance, doesn't take up half the screen, and the graphics look better than my Amiga circa 1991.
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
We did the same for Wolfenstein and had positive response from our numbers we handed in to id. We intend to do the same for NWN and hopefully ensure more games get ported.
Whichever way you do it, DO IT. Unless you make your voice heard, they wont listen.
Tux Games. Your complete source for native Linux games.
I think they mean they switched from using those blue-silver shiny CD-Rs, to Gold CD-R's. The Gold ones look cooler. :)
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
Hehe, yeah, maybe that was going overboard. Didn't even notice. Guide for the uninitiated:
IWD = Icewind Dale
IWD2 = Icewind Dale 2
IE = Infinity Engine -- powers BG/BG:TotSC/PS:T/IWD/IWD:HoW/BG2/BG2:ToB and IWD2
NPC = Non-Player Character
NWN = Neverwinter Nights
DS = Dungeon Siege
TA = Total Annihilation
OP = Original Poster
TotSC = Tales of the Sword Coast. BG1 add-in adventures
PS:T = Planescape: Torment
ToB = Throne of Bhaal. BG2 expansion.
HoW = Heart of Winter. IWD add-in.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Get your wallpaper image if a penguin viciously attacking a Doomknight here!
Poor Doomknight doesn't know what he's up against...
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
It should be noted that concerns from the community prompted this from bioware:
...but I don't know if anything came of it. Seeing how the game is now gold, I imagine we're gonna hear soon, or they didn't change the license.
My problem is with the revocation rights. Those should go away. I'm hesitant to even bother learning the tools if they retain that right. It's the principle of it all. (why should this be any different than say a text-editor?)
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Just found the answer: no subscription required
My brother loaned me his copy of BG1, which I played. Robin, by girlfriend later decided to give BG1 a try and we purchased a copy, since I had returned it already.
I purchased BG2 and played most of it, again on 'doze.
Well, I don't play so many games now, and I don't even have a native 'doze installed anymore (got a vmware based 'doze for a single program... and yes, that's a legit vmware I paid for too).
So at least for me, it's a decision between PAYING for a linux version of a game, or not even bothering to play. Windows is not an option. You can have my money, but only if it works entirely in Linux. I'm just not going to install windows to play a damn game. I'd rather just not waste my time on it if it requires the headache of installing 'doze, installing drivers, rebooting endlessly in the process.
I know a lot of people still dual boot, but I've kicked that habbit.
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
It used to be that companies would rarely ship a game if it was not bug free.
This is still the case with software for game consoles. If the quality of the boxed product is important to you, then PC gaming may not be for you. Buy a Sony PS2 console and buy games for that.
Will I retire or break 10K?
How about if you add an extra layer of indirection?
Instead of releasing a module proper, you release say, a single xml-document, which can be run by end-users through a translator which just happens (gasp!) to output IWD-compatible modules if properly fed.
Maybe there's an implicit 'anything that could possibly be made into a working module belongs to us'? :-\
Hmm.. maybe we'll get some reverse-engineering fun out of this after all :-)
Belief is the currency of delusion.
whether or not NWN will be available for Mac OS X or just Mac OS 8/9
I thought it was going to be OS X only. Of course, I also thought it was going to be triple-compatible in the box, including the toolset.
I get the feeling that it just isn't ready yet.
I get the feeling that Bioware has been flat out lying about even working on a Mac version in the first place. Do we have any evidence that it exists at all? I have been drooling about NWN for the past 2 years, and it's all turning to crap.
Not that I think this will come to pass, nor that this is EXACTLY what the system is meant for, but it still sounds like fun.
P.S. Yes, I have tried starting something local with real people, couldn't get it to fly though.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Server-linking features allow the assembly of distributed MMORPGs.
That's the hope of the fans. They haven't promised to deliver it, and have in fact stated some design decisions that would make this very hard to do, if possible at all. The fans, you see, are hopeless optimists who are sure they can outdo the professionals.
If you had doors between quake servers, would that make quake a MMORPG? No?
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Change your dollar amount. $33.50 is $21h.50.
No it isn't, you retard. It's $21.8h, because 0.5 decimal is one half, or 8h / 10h. If you're going to advocate hex, you need to learn to use it.
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Well, I'm also an old fart roleplayer but I enjoy these new tools.
Yes, you give up a certain creative license. You won't be creating new dungeons on the fly in NWN, but on the plus you also "give up" a lot of the labor. You spend less time rolling dice(the game engine handles the mechanics) and more time telling a story.
Can they hold off on the release date until I get my character cheat system worked out?
Thanks!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Except now, consoles are getting Internet access and hard disks, how long before history repeats?
Don't worry. It is the user's expectation that a single-player or split-screen console game will be relatively bug-free out of the box. If Super Mario 9 for PostCube crashes when little Chester gets to level 12, you bet Chester's mom will be taking the game back to the store rather than tying up the phone line for a whole day to download a patch. I can see a system where players can buy new characters for Smash Bros. 3 or something, but I don't see Nintendo risking its brand name by pushing Zelda 11 out the door and dismissing the bugs with "We'll patch around them."
Not everybody has the broadband to download a 500 MB patch for an Xbox game. And given Microsoft's track record with respect to automatic updates, you'll have to download the patch from Xbox Update onto every system you play the game on (which may mean packing up your Xbox and taking it to the home of a friend who subscribes to compatible broadband) unless Microsoft distributes patches on DVDs at cost (as has been done for Windows Update).
And how do you expect to fit a large storage device into a handheld system like Game Boy Advance? Are you going to do like the Game Park system does, make the game cartridges partially rewritable?
Will I retire or break 10K?
There's quests!? Wow, I've been having too much fun just fooling with NPCs and raiding vaults and stuff.. ;-)
Much like my Daggerfall experience, I don't bother with the quests much, I just go off and do my own thing. That's where the real fun comes in.
Burger King! Where all Dragon Masters eat!